HA RD WICKE ' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



161 



the latter seems to wince when the wound is made ; 

 surely this would indicate that the creature felt the 

 prick. As : yet, however, I think that nothing has 

 been made out with certainty as to the feeling of 

 insects. 



Smell. — The sense of smell is well developed in 

 insects. Those useful insects, the carrion-hettles, are, 

 it is said, attracted to their unpleasant prey from 

 surprising' distances ; and butterflies and bees smell 

 their favourite flowers from heights of over sixteen 

 feet. Huber tells us that, having put some honey in 

 a room with the window opened just wide enough to 

 admit them, he found some bees and a butterfly 

 assembled round it ; and collectors of moths put 

 honey on the trees, generally with success. Ants 

 are also very sensitive to smell, for we are told 

 by Lieutenant Stairs that in Africa no cockroach can 

 die in a corner without the ants finding it. 



The position of the organ of smell has not with 

 certainty been ascertained. Some think that the 

 antennae fulfil this office, but this does not seem pro- 

 bable. Huber thought that it is situated in the head 

 and near the mouth, for he says that, having 

 approached a drop of turpentine to the mouth of a 

 bee, the insect started from the honey on which it 

 was feeding, and would have flown away but for the 

 removal of the offence. 



Some think that the jointed antenniform appen- 

 dages situated on the hinder part of the abdomen, are 

 organs of smell ; and I might also add here that 

 these have been connected with hearing ; but I believe 

 that they are purely generative. 



Taste. — The organ of taste is situated in the mouth, 

 and is assisted by one or two pairs of salivary glands. 

 This sense is also well-marked Many caterpillars 

 would rather die of hunger than eat anything but 

 their natural food-plant. It has been asserted that 

 bees do not taste, as they seem to mix their honey 

 from different plants indiscriminately, but the bee's 

 motive is probably to take what best gratifies the off- 

 spring of the hive. 



Again, many insects are not particular in their 

 choice of water, and seem to drink impure and pure 

 water with equal relish ; but it is said that bees and 

 butterflies drink impure water only in the spring for 

 the sake of the salts which they contain. 



The shape of the tongue in insects varies con- 

 siderably. In dragonflies and grasshoppers it is 

 rounded, in wasps forked, in bees tubular, in diptera 

 tubular and fleshy, and in butterflies and moths it is 

 divided into two parts which join together and form 

 a tube. The salivary glands open by tubes into the 

 mouth, gullet, or stomach, according to the nature of 

 the food. The gizzard is generally furnished with 

 teeth, which assist in the process of digestion after 

 the food has been mixed with the saliva and 

 swallowed. 



Instinct. — Kirby considered insects' instincts as 

 " unknown faculties, implanted in their constitution 



by the Creator, by which, independent of instruction, 

 observation, or experience, and without a knowledge 

 of the end in view, they are impelled to the perform- 

 ance of certain actions tending to the well-being of 

 the individual and preservation of the species." 



It is instinct which directs the butterfly to flowers 

 where she takes her pleasure, and then to leaves 

 where she lays her eggs, but in this case the instinct 

 is probably aided by smell. It is instinct which 

 enables the caterpillar to spin its cocoon, or to sus- 

 pend itself head downwards, preparatory to casting 

 its last skin and appearing in the garb of a chrysalis. 

 Ants are guided by instinct to build their nests, as 

 are also bees and wasps. 



Sharon Turner in the " Sacred History of the 

 World," vol. iii., says that " the actions and habits 

 of the insect world display the same kind of animal 

 mind and feeling which birds and quadrupeds exhibit. 

 If there be a difference, it is not to the disadvantage 

 of insects, for ants, bees, and wasps, and especially 

 the smallest of these, ants, do things, and exercise 

 sensibilities, and combine for purposes, and achieve 

 ends, that bring them nearer to mankind than any 

 other class of animated nature." 



The keeping of aphides by ants is an illustration 

 of this. Huber says that the humble-bees drill a hole 

 through the calyx of narrow tubular flowers. As 

 regards the means by which insects communicate 

 with '.one another, it seems to be done by the 

 antennae ; and this will be plain if a nest of ants be 

 watched for some time, when the workers seem to be 

 conversing in antennae language. 



The ant is certainly a wonderful insect. It is, I 

 believe, the strongest being of its size alive, and its 

 reasoning power is enormous. Mr. Darwin says of 

 the ant, " The size of the brain is closely connected 

 with the higher mental powers, and the cerebral 

 ganglion of ants is of extraordinary comparative 

 dimensions. Still, cubic contents are no accurate 

 gauge. There must be extraordinary mental activity, 

 with extremely small absolute mass of nervous matter. 

 It seems as if the fineness of the quality was more 

 important than even its quantity. The wonderfully 

 diversified instincts, the mental powers and affections, 

 exist with cerebral ganglia not so large as a pin's 

 head." 



Again, he says that the brain of an ant " is one of 

 the most marvellous atoms of matter in the world, 

 more so even than the brain of man." I think that I 

 had better conclude with the following words of an 

 American writer, with whom I certainly feel disposed 

 to agree : " Everything which surrounds us is full of 

 the utterance of one word completely expressive of 

 its nature. This word is its name, for God even now 

 (could we but see it) is creating all things, and giving 

 a name to every work of His love, in its perfect adap- 

 tation to that for which it is designed. But man has 

 abused his power, and has become insensible to the 

 real character of the brute creation, still more so to 



